Buying a laptop for Sims 4 (Australia)
Any idea what laptop I should get to be able to do uni work/stream and play sims 4? Im in Australia and trying to find something that can do it all for below $1500 aud. Any suggestions would be so appreciated!
@wdslt I split your post into its own thread because it's easier for me to keep track of one person's details at a time. (I also edited the title, since you're not looking for the specific hardware mentioned in the other thread.)
For $1,500, you could get a gaming laptop that would run all Sims 4 packs together on ultra graphics settings, now and possibly for the entire run of the game. It's not totally clear how demanding future expansions will be, but an Nvidia 1650 graphics card is right on the border of what we would guess would run all packs together on ultra by the time the game is out of development.
All these laptops come with 8 GB memory installed, which is enough for Sims 4, but maybe not enough if you're streaming while playing. That's not a big deal though—you could get another 8 GB RAM for maybe $60-70. And it's the easiest component to install, only requiring taking off the bottom cover (sometimes not even that) and clicking a RAM stick into place. Gaming laptops with 16 GB pre-installed are generally significantly more expensive; non-gaming laptops don't have the graphics cards to run Sims 4 on ultra.
This is the lowest I'd go, at $1,100. Its processor is strong enough to support gaming and streaming and it has a 1650. Its hard drive is small though—256 GB is enough for Sims 4, your user content, plenty of other small apps, and typical schoolwork. But if you're thinking of saving and editing videos, or you're going to have school projects that involve large files or collections of files (photos, videos, lots of data), it might not be enough. Of course you could always get an external hard drive later if you decide you need one.
https://www.centrecom.com.au/asus-fx505dt-bq191t-156-fhd-ryzen-5-3550h-laptop
This one is $1,360, and its only improvement over the earlier one is its 512 GB hard drive. Otherwise it has the same graphics card and a processor that's slightly slower, not that it would matter for Sims 4 or for streaming. It might only be available in a store, but it's hard to tell without an Australian address to input.
This laptop is $1,500 and has a somewhat stronger processor and faster graphics card than the others, plus a 512 GB hard drive. If you're willing to spend this much, it's the best option of the three. It's on sale at a number of stores; here are three, in case you can find a student discount or something similar.
https://www.centrecom.com.au/asus-fa506ii-hn138t-156-fhd-144hz-ryzen-5-4600h-laptop
https://www.computeralliance.com.au/asus-fa506ii-hn138t-15.6-ryzen-5-notebook-win-10
If you have more questions, please feel free to ask. And if these aren't what you're looking for, let me know what details you'd like to see.
